The Great Lakes cool the hot winds of summer and warm the cold winds of winter, giving Michigan a more moderate and somewhat moister climate than some other north-central states. Although the Upper Peninsula is cooler, the temperature ranges in Michigan’s far northern and far southern cities do not differ excessively. In the far north, in Sault Sainte Marie, January high temperatures are usually in the low 20s F (about −6 °C), while low temperatures hover near 5 °F (−15 °C); in July temperatures rise into the mid-70s F (about 24 °C) and drop into the low 50s F (about 11 °C) daily. In Detroit, in the southeast, January high temperatures usually reach the low 30s F (about 1 °C), while lows fall to about 20 °F (about −7 °C); in July, high temperatures are typically in the mid-80s F (about 29 °C) and lows are in the mid-60s F (about 18 °C). Michigan has average annual precipitation of about 30–38 inches (760–965 mm). The wettest part of the state is in the southwest, with precipitation decreasing toward the northeast. Alpena, in the northeastern Lower Peninsula, is one of the driest sites in the United States east of the Mississippi River. There are two lake-effect snowbelts, one on the south shore of Lake Superior, in the Upper Peninsula, the other on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, in the Lower Peninsula. These regions, which stretch inland for some 30 to 60 miles (50 to 100 km), may receive two to three times more winter snowfall than elsewhere in the state. The length of the growing season ranges from about two months in the Upper Peninsula to almost six months near the lakes in the southern portion of the Lower Peninsula. Severe weather phenomena, such as tornadoes, are rare and usually are restricted to late summer.

Plant and animal life

Almost all of Michigan was once heavily wooded, with genuine prairies or clearings found only in the southwest and on some coastal dunes. Hardwood forests in the southern part of the state were dominated by oak and hickory in drier areas with relatively poor soils, and by maple and beech in wetter areas with richer soils. In the north, maple, beech, and various species of pine, birch, aspen, and hemlock were commonplace. Large, nearly pure tracts of white pine once dominated the northern region and were the basis for the state’s emergence as a leading lumber producer in the late 19th century. By the mid-20th century, only about half of the state remained forest-covered. Since that time, however, there has been slow regrowth of forested land, and Michigan’s woodlands remain among the most extensive in the country; the state has four national forests.

Animals native to the area are numerous. Whitefish and lake trout abound in the Great Lakes, and many of Michigan’s streams contain various other trout. The state’s Department of Natural Resources operates hatcheries and encourages fishing in the many inland lakes, where perch, pike, and bass abound. Beavers were sought eagerly by early traders, and other fur-bearing mammals were also found in large numbers. Deer and bears, as well as quail and ducks, remain numerous in many areas. Since the late 20th century, turkeys, elk, and moose have been restocked in northern Michigan and are now thriving there. Despite Michigan’s nickname of the Wolverine State, wolverines are extremely rare in the area. It was long believed that the last known specimen was killed (and stuffed) in the 1860s. However, sporadic sightings of wolverines have been reported more recently.

Population composition

Prior to the arrival of European settlers, Michigan was inhabited by several groups of indigenous peoples, most of whom were speakers of Algonquian languages. The majority of the native peoples lived near the lakeshores and traveled by water. Those in the south, the Potawatomi and Ottawa, were primarily farmers, who raised corn (maize), tobacco, sunflowers, and squash and also harvested products from the surrounding forests. These southern peoples were relatively sedentary and settled. By contrast, the widely scattered Ojibwa peoples of the colder north moved seasonally, following a livelihood of hunting and fishing.

Most of Michigan’s early settlers of European descent came to the area in the 1830s, as part of a wave of immigration commonly called “Michigan Fever.” Between 1820 and 1834 the population of the Michigan Territory increased tenfold. Many of the settlers came from New York state via the Erie Canal; by 1850, immigrants from New York constituted about one-third of Michigan’s population.

Germans were the most numerous of the early non-English-speaking immigrants. Detroit had a sizeable German community by the mid-1830s, as did several rural areas by 1850. The large Irish population was basically urban, although Irish farmers were found in southern Michigan and, by 1860, also in the Upper Peninsula. Dutch influences are still evident in the western counties around Holland and Zeeland, where Dutch settlers pioneered successfully in 1847. The Finnish, Irish, and Cornish were important in the economic and cultural life of the Upper Peninsula, where many worked as miners. Early Polish immigrants settled in rural areas until the 1890s, when a large number of Poles became concentrated in Detroit. The city’s present-day population includes many people of Polish ancestry. More recently Hispanics, Asians, and immigrants from the Middle East have contributed to Michigan’s ethnic mix. The state’s population of Middle Eastern descent—including Syrians, Lebanese, Iraqis, Palestinians, Jordanians, Yemenis, and others—is one of the largest in the country; it is concentrated near Dearborn.

The most significant population phenomenon since the beginning of the 20th century, however, has been the growth of the African American community—largely as a result of the Great Migration of rural southern African Americans to northern urban areas—from fewer than 16,000 in 1900 to well over 1,000,000 by the turn of the 21st century. Roughly half of Michigan’s African American residents live in the city of Detroit, where they constitute more than four-fifths of the population; there also are sizeable African American communities in the older neighbourhoods and central city areas of Flint and Saginaw.

Michigan’s religious history differs somewhat from that of many of the other states of the Midwest in its early predominance of Roman Catholicism. Because the first European settlers in Detroit were French Roman Catholics, many immigrants of that faith were attracted to the city even before the large Irish, Italian, and Polish immigrations of the 19th century. Detroit was made a diocese in 1833 and an archdiocese in 1937. Other dioceses were established at Marquette, Grand Rapids, Lansing, Saginaw, Gaylord, and Kalamazoo. Of the Protestant denominations, Lutheranism has had many German and Scandinavian adherents, while Methodism has been important in both rural and urban Michigan. The first Dutch settlers were members of the Christian Reformed Church, which was opposed to the state church of the Netherlands; the Michigan congregation was (and has remained) highly independent of the Dutch church from which it separated. There are also large numbers of Presbyterians, Baptists, and Episcopalians. Altogether, Michigan has scores of Protestant denominations, some with only small memberships.

The first Jewish immigrants to Michigan were of German background. In 1851 Detroit Jews founded a synagogue. Synagogues throughout the state reflect all forms of Judaism. A portion of the state’s Arab population is Muslim, most following the Shīʿite branch of Islam. Arab Christians (mostly Catholic), however, outnumber Arab Muslims in the Detroit region.